Washington: A new study has indicated that girls outperform boys in educational achievement in 70 percent of the countries they studied regardless of the level of gender, political, economic or social equality.

The study conducted at University of Missouri showed that boys fall behind girls in overall achievement across reading, mathematics, and science in 70 percent of the countries studied. Boys outperform girls in only three countries or regions: Colombia, Costa Rica and the Indian state, Himachal Pradesh. Boys and girls had similar educational achievements in the United States and United Kingdom.

David Geary, Curators Professor of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science at MU, said that they studied the educational achievement levels of 1.5 million 15-year-olds from around the world using data collected between 2000 and 2010 and even in countries where women's liberties are severely restricted, they found that girls are outperforming boys in reading, mathematics, and science literacy by age 15, regardless of political, economic, social or gender equality issues and policies found in those countries.

Gijsbert Stoet, reader in psychology at the University of Glasgow, said that with the exception of high-achievers, boys have poorer educational outcomes than girls around the world, independent of social equality indicators and the results show that a commitment to gender equality on its own is not enough to close the achievement gaps in global education; the gap is not increasing.

In countries known for relatively low gender equality ratings, such as Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the educational achievement gap is relatively large and favors girls.